Club News
January Lunch: Chairman, Tony Farrell, welcomed 25 members and our guest speaker Linda Duffield. The Raffle raised £34. Chairman’s Charity collection raised £50.
We welcomed back Andrew Dunlop and bade farewell to Andrew Frazer who is moving to Barnham. The Chairman gave some January anecdotes including ‘Two-headed Janus’ and January and February addition to the original 10 Roman months.
Outings/Events: Any suggestions please to Terry Ribbons.
Lunch changes by 10.30am the prior Tuesday to chris@moniz.co.uk T: 020 8660 6063. Please also report any Member News to Chris.
Please email vincent@fosdike.com with articles/news for the Newsletter.
AGM 6th March 2025 (after lunch): Election of Committee for 2025. Formerly the current committee resigns, and nominations (or self-nominations) are invited from Members. Please contact Secretary by 21st February. Positions vacant are: Chairman, Vice Chairman, Secretary, Luncheons Secretary, Treasurer, Social Sec., Speakers Sec., Welfare Sec., Without portfolio. Final nominees will be published in the March Newsletter. Not on the Committee are Newsletter Editor: Vincent Fosdike, Webmaster: Jim Mulvey, Accounts Examiner: Brian Morris.
Speaker today: Ian Worley: ‘The Whitbread Round the
World Race 1977/78’
6th March 2025: Chairman’s Charity Guest Speaker
January Guest Speaker: Linda Duffield
– ‘The Canadians at Kenley’
Our first meeting of the new year was enlivened by Linda’s excellent history of the Royal Canadian Airforce fighter squadrons based at Kenley .
Their history here started in the great war and included the famous ace Billy Bishop. At the start of WW2 their presence was very small but rose to 100,000 by 1943. They were very significantly involved in providing training for RAF aircrew under vitally experienced pilots with combat experience in the safe skies of Canada. Even some of our aircraft (Hurricanes mainly) were manufactured in Canada, so the links were substantial.
Flying with the Maple Leaf emblem from about 1943 the Squadrons went through the evolution of aircraft including the various marques of Spitfires which were essential to combat the FW 190 which threatened to overwhelm our fighter units.
By 1944 they were under the leadership of the renowned ace Johnny Johnson who modernised formation tactics with considerable effect and whose spitfire became the basis for an Airfix kit bearing his ID recognition markings JE-J. He was somewhat of a character as his career demonstrates and this was a bit of theme with the group. Another pilot of the group was the highest scoring RCAF pilot (32/2) victories and medals of the highest order. He was somewhat too individualistic at times and was even arrested for failing to follow orders! At one time he flew his spitfire in a dive so hard that the rivets popped out! At least he survived the war but was to die in an air accident in 1948.
No unit can escape losses and of those who once flew from Kenley 48 pilots were lost. Of the 250,000 aircrew who served with the RCAF 17,000 were lost, demonstrating the huge contribution they made at that desperate time and one which the Kenley revival organisation is committed to perpetuate. There is a web site: www.kenleyrevival.org showing a two-mile walk marked by information boards.
Links with Canadian Military and civilian groups are active and Linda referred to the “Portcullis” clubs in this connection. These are clubs for RAF veterans but open to wider membership and there is one based at Kenley. Thank you Linda for the talk and the very meaningful work you still do.
P.S. Linda was able to trace a relative of mine who was lost in service with the RCAF whom I had never been able research beyond passing mentions of his name by relatives now long dead. The details of wider family links and the circumstances of his loss in combat were amazing even down to the names of the German fighter pilots who shot down his Wellington bomber over the channel. He turned out to have been my great uncle!
Dennis George Evans: 1936–2024
Dennis was born on 17th April at St James Hospital, Battersea, near the war-time German target of Clapham Junction. Dennis and sister Jane were evacuated to Brighton, then Cornwall until after the Battle of Britain. In their air raid shelter one night, a near miss destroyed windows and brought the ceilings down.
After attending Sir Walter St John’s Grammar School, Dennis started work in LEP Transport as a customs and excise broker until ‘call up’ (National Service) to the RAF, where . . .
He mostly fitted cameras into jets to film when the guns were fired. Using coloured projectiles and a trailing banner, Dennis proved that nine out of ten pilots missed their targets.
After National Service, Dennis rejoined LEP Transport where until retirement he was a business analyst in logistics. He travelled over Britain and Europe and his expertise in chemical importation was such that Customs asked for advice.
Dennis married Barbara on 2nd April 1966. They enjoyed dancing and travelling the world – hotels and caravans. Their three daughters, Alexandra, Maxine and Zara and grandchildren made the extended family that Dennis loved. They kept ponies, sheep, chickens, cats and dogs.
Dennis’s other great loves were the Mudlarks walking club, Coulsdon Probus and Freemasonry (Secretary, Woodcote Lodge). Dennis was secretary of the Mudlarks and retained an encyclopaedic memory of all the walks and lunch venues. Many old friends and Probus members joined him.
Dennis joined Coulsdon Probus in 2000 and was at the heart of the club as Secretary for many years. He loved to tell us either informally or as the month’s speaker about his air force experience and the ins and outs of customs and excise. And his every moment was an opportunity to squirrel away questions for his quizmaster duties at the annual Probus quiz.
Dennis was most proud telling us of his grandson Toby aged six with Pumphill Fandango (Roy), their rescued pony, coming first for Mountain & Moorland Leading Rein Ponies, then going on to become the Champion.
Dennis passed away on 13th November after a two-year struggle. He will be sadly missed.
The Turn of The Year. Thoughts On Another Christmas Past
– by Vincent Fosdike
So Christmas is over for better or worse.
Some of us will have been hurtling about visiting relatives even perhaps abroad. Others will have been keeping warm and avoiding the mental and physical frustrations of cancellations, diversions, passports and visas, by watching tried and trusted terrestrial T.V. programmes.
These are guaranteed to show a selection of our greatest military achievements mainly from WW2 but some earlier victories and for the ladies’, items such as Mary Poppins, The Sound of Music, The Snowman and some Dickens which can have a universal appeal.
Like the rail strikes we know they will come and by carefully noting the dates in both cases they can be made to neutralise each other. So far so good. Equally the question of why the same menu is served up like Christmas dinner arises just after the said dinner is served .
Answers vary. The cynics will say it minimises the media workload. Some hapless junior can be asked to find and set up the usual visual feast, make sure the programme listers are informed accordingly and stand by in case any mistakes are made by accidentally showing something with a similar name but “adult content” at least before the water shed. Strangely war films are not seen as “adult content” so are fine for all the family and very few complaints will be received.
The less cynical will say that underlying the “oldies” is a common theme at a deeper level. The need for comfort and reassurance. In all of these offerings there is a happy ending in some form or other (though one or two are borderline for softies).
The repetition itself is comforting and if anyone dozes off in front of the screen it is easy to catch up and not have to bother with asking what happened and to whom as he/she may even be able to tell themselves before the credits roll.
Yes we like reassurance especially at a time of peace and goodwill and surely nothing is more effective in this area than seeing threats and evil overcome on our behalf predictably and by our favourite actors accompanied by string music that could at other times inspire us to heroic feats of gardening!
How often do such quasi-historical films actually produce the form of sweet melancholia that inspired Shelly to write his poem Ode to a Skylark?
Probably the loss of heroic characters towards the end of a film will inject a degree of pathos so that the happy ending can seem bought at the cost of sacrifice.
Most of these epics are not far removed from real gravestones which can easily be located on web sites. Yet we watch most years as perhaps we watch royal events to brighten up the humdrum daily grind of perhaps a more plebeian existence.
Yes our nature is full of paradoxes and the broadcasts do help to assuage their underlying tensions, together with a cup that cheers.
Their histories have a reality even if tempered with artistic licence to cover certain attributes that “real facts” make a little less palatable.
If all of this seems a bit on the “soft side”, for those who consider themselves of a hardheaded and realistic disposition not in need of comfort or shielding from life in general, there is no need to watch the soft stuff.You can always tune in to 24-hour Rolling News and watch the unedited version of the here and now. There is the slight disadvantage that one can’t be so sure of the ending. Or does this merely add to the excitement?